Dire
by Skriva
Summary: When Negan takes Rick on a run that goes horribly wrong the two enemies are thrown together into a game of survival. Are they really that different from one another and are some souls really beyond saving? RickxNegan slowburn


Rick looks out from the passenger window at the grey passing landscape. A bullet riddled sign for the upcoming town flies past, followed by one for a resort, the colors faded.

He forces away the thoughts of Lori that always seem to rush forward from the corners of his mind at the reminders of the world that once was.

"What goin' on in there Prick?"

Slowly Rick turns away from the window to look warily at his unwanted traveling companion. Negan flashes him a grin, chuckling as he drums his calloused fingers on the steering wheel, "Well?"

"Nothin."

"Don't give me that fucking bullshit." Negan retorts.

"Wasn't anything important."

"Answer the fucking question." Negan snarls, voice dropping dangerously low.

Rick hesitates a moment longer, pushing his luck just a little farther as he stares numbly out at the stretch of weathered and cracked asphalt.

Numb was something he had been feeling a lot of, utter bleakness and dispare slowing carving out an empty hole in his chest.

"I was...I was thinking about how things used to be."

"I don't follow."

"How things were before all of this," he waves his hand listlessly at the dashboard where the hatchet sits, "before the walkers."

Negan grunts and does not speak for sometime, dark eyes focused on the road ahead with such concentration Rick wonders if his words have stirred up memories.

As they turn off the deserted highway and down the curving off ramp into the unknown town Negan breaks the silence, "Ready Prick?"

Rick nods.

"I fucking didn't fuckin' hear you."

"Yes."

"Good. I'm fuckin' counting on you."

Rick is still mystified as to why it's just the two of them going to confront this group they had been receiving reports about. Negan had said they needed some 'alone time' for 'just the two of them, leader to leader' as if that was all the explaination needed and a good enough reason to leave the safety of numbers behind.

"Do not let me the fuck down because I guaran-fucking-tee you won't like the consequences."

A test. This was all a test. Rick realizes. His dispare doubling until all the wants to do is drop his face into his hands and scream.

Instead he forces his eyes to stay on the road ahead and his voice to remain flat as they pull slowly into the parking lot of a Piggly Wiggly and he asks, "How many are there?"

"There! That's the fuckin spirit I want!" Negan exclaims, cuffing Rick on the ear with scarred knuckles.

Parking the car in front of the boarded up store his tone becomes more serious, "Not that fucking many, a few men and a bitch or two. They're growing drugs or something in there. They won't be a problem."

Opening the door and hefting Lucile to his shoulder he gives Rick a wink, "C'mon soldier, show me what you're made of."

Following his lead Rick grabs the hatchet and exits the SUV, legs aching from sitting so long.

"HEYYO WHERE YOU FUCKING STONERS AT? IT AINT FUCKIN NICE NOT TO INVITE ME TO THE PARTY!" Negan bellows at the grey sky, eyes alight and movements animated, almost dance like as he strides around the SUV and towards the store.

"C'MON OUT AND FUCKING PLAY. I PROMISE I'LL BE NICE."

He gives Rick a grin, muttering, "Maybe."

Rick scans the filthy parking lot but aside from a broken styrofoam cup rolling aimlessly down the aisle between husks of burned out trucks nothing moves.

Negan sighs, swinging Lucile loosely, "Fuckers. Looks like we're doing things the hard way."

"Maybe they're not here anymore." Rick ventures, scanning the crumbling building with unease.

"No Prick, they're here. They're hiding." Negan snaps, then roars, "TIME FOR HIDIDNG FUCKING SEEK!"

Rick warily follows as Negan round the corner of the store, watching for any sign of the suspiciously absent living dead.

Negan bounds up the steps of a side door and pounds on it, "OPEN UP!"

There is no longer a handle and when it does not budge beneath a powerful kick from Negan's boot, Rick knows there will not be any survivors from this group.

"Fuckers." Negan grits through his teeth, "Cmon Prick, there's a loading bay around back."

That is when they hear it, the engine of the SUV reving up.

"Fuck!"

The coil of dread that had settled low in Rick's gut rapidly swells into his throat as they race back to the front of the building, Negan in the lead.

"FUCK! FUCKING FUCKER MOTHERFUCKERS!" Negan screams, Lucile clenched tightly in one fist, the other reaching for the .38 in the waist of his pants.

"YOU FU-"

A volley of shotgun fire cuts off Negan's words, buckshot ricocheting off the building corner and showering them both in chipped concrete.

"SHIT!"

Five men are now in the SUV, grimy and sore covered as they stare back at Negan and Rick. Another shotgun volley splits the air and Negan screams out a string of unintelligible curses as he and Rick dive quickly behind a small black sedan.

"Motherfuckers." Negan hisses, disentangling his pistol from his belt and jacket, "Motherfucking fucking fuckers!"

Again the shotgun booms, raining down shattered glass on their heads as the windows explode beneath the buckshot.

As he ducks lower Rick see the blood, thick and glistening black on Negan's stomach.

Enraged, Negan fires wildly at their retreating SUV, face red and brown eyes narrowed into wrathful slits. Rick wonders briefly if he is about to be shot.

The chamber clicks empty however and the car vanishes out of sight, heading for the highway and away from the deserted shopping center.

"Fuck."

Negan slumps against the side of the car, tilting his head back with a hard bang, "Fucking fuckity fucking fuck. FUCK!"

The last word earns an involuntary spasm from his stomach and his eyes fly open, fixing themselves on the soaked t-shirt.

"Motherfuckers shot me."

CHAPTER TWO WILL BE UP SOON!


End file.
